How our digital culture is influencing the future success of girls

About

Welcome to Our Digital Daughters – a place to share insights and explore the communications and socialization issues we all face in our fast-paced, short-take digital culture. My name is Audrey Mann Cronin. I am a writer, speaker, and communications consultant in the consumer technology industry. I am also the mom of two inspiring and constantly entertaining teenagers.

Before raising my own “digital kids,” I was the media strategist and storyteller behind many of the biggest leaps forward in digital innovation and consumerism.

Since the early 90s (before smartphones, iTunes and even the adoption of the Internet), I have been – and still am – at the forefront of promoting digital technology to the populace – an advocate for more innovation; more screens, apps and devices. I don’t just have a ringside seat; I am in the ring. But in recent years, I find myself also on the outside, the mother of two digital natives – a daughter and a son. I am constantly challenged with policing new choices and decisions, and advising on new social issues, as the digital revolution sweeps into our own home. (“Why can’t I get an Instagram account? Everyone else has one! Can I buy this new game on my phone? I want to play it with my friends. I guess Kaitlyn had a party because she posted a group “selfie.” Why didn’t she invite me?”)

All roads seem to have led me to this platform.

In the spring of 2014, while raising my teenagers, I launched the Our Digital Daughters blog to explore how our always-on digital culture is influencing our future success. The response to my blog and presentations inspired me to delve deeper. I now run the Facebook community, “Our Digital Daughters,” write for Your Teen Magazine, and just launched an app, LikeSo: Your Personal Speech Coach, to empower everyone to speak articulately, confidently and without the “like, ya know” syndrome.

What would Our Digital Daughters be without girls to offer their wisdom? As such, I have cultivated an impressive group of “Digital Daughter Ambassadors” – tweens, teens and young women from New York to California – and even London. Read about their insights, concerns, favorites and ideas. And, let me know yours!

With Our Digital Daughters, I am excited to share some hard-won knowledge, discover and dissect the latest news and commentary, hear from our digital kids, and learn together with all of you how to best navigate our constantly changing digital world.